The international research network “Diffuse Cities and Urbanization” (DUCN) launches a regular research seminar. Its objective is to address the debates surrounding the contemporary worldwide diffusion of urbanization, in order to contribute to the production of new epistemologies of the urban in a global and comparative perspective. Not only the territorial diffusion of urbanization poses major challenges in terms of governance, but it also offers an intriguing research object which stimulates the production of ‘new geographies of urban knowledge’ (Roy 2009). Such geographies require the elaboration of new analytical frames which transcend the dichotomies between urban and rural, North and South, Western and postcolonial (Brenner and Schmid 2015). Our research seminar aims to contribute to the production of such analytical frames. It does so by providing a space where diverse disciplinary and thematic perspectives and approaches on urban diffusion and the diffusionof urbanization are presented in a comparative and relational perspective (Ren and Luger, 2015).

Our network aims to develop a comparative and inter disciplinary method of analysis that goes beyond existing frontiers of urban knowledge. In this perspective, we have invited to this session senior researchers with consolidated experience in comparative and interdisciplinary research approaches.The objective is to learn from their experience, discuss about the advantages and difficulties of comparative urban research and inter-disciplinary approaches.

Jean-Louis Chaléard (Emeritus Professor of Geography - University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/ UMR PRODIG - Director of the Echogéo journal) will present the challenges of comparative research drawing on the research program PERISUD (Dynamiques territoriales à la périphérie des métropoles des Suds), which dealt with the following cities: Shanghai, Mexico, Lima, Le Cap, Hanoi and Abidjan.

Eric Denis (CNRS Research Director / UMR Géographie Cités) will give a presentation focused on the research program SUBURBIN (SUBaltern URbanization in INdia). This program focused on the diversity of trajectories of urbanization in India and integrated diverse disciplinary approaches.